University to open its doors for annual community festival

The University of Manchester is set to open its doors to local people once again, as its annual Community Festival takes place on Saturday 16 June.

The day will be filled with fascinating activities - visitors will be able to get hands-on with live experiments and interactive demonstrations, watch musical and dramatic performances, and speak to students and scientists about the university.

Some of the exciting things to do will include:

Transport yourself to China!

Enjoy a tea ceremony in the beautiful Chinese Garden, classical music performances and Chinese arts & crafts workshops for children at the Confucius Institute.

Dr Who?

Come and find out more about Delia Derbyshire, a pioneer of electronic music and the woman behind the world famous Dr Who theme. Play the Deliaphonica Game to understand how Delia created that iconic electronic music.

Shimmer and Shine Window Workshop and Selfie Station

The John Rylands Library’s amazing stained glass windows are a colour inspiration! Using colourful papers and textures make your own stained glass windows and strike a pose in our pop up Selfie Station using fun and colourful props!

Heritage Tours

Journey around the University’s fine neo-gothic architecture and sites of world-changing discovery. Visit sites including where Ernest Rutherford ‘split the atom’ and where Alan Turing helped lay the foundations of modern computing.

The Flash-Bang Show

Everyone’s favourite, open your eyes to the amazing world of chemistry that is all around us. There will be fantastic colour changes, flashes and the occasional bang, so hold on to your hats!

Opening the curtain: adventures in healthcare

We will take you on a journey through some of the sounds, sights and scenes of healthcare. Meet actors playing patients, help doctors and nurses ‘at work’; and experiment with writing, drama and fun ‘in the waiting room’.

Exploring the many languages of Manchester

Come and find out more about Manchester's many languages! Play family-friendly language games and learn some new words in our language taster session.

Make your own 3D models

Our Digital Fabrication Centre uses printing for research and to build models. Come and play with our 3D doodle pens and make your own 3D model.

Climb aboard a vintage ambulance

Take a look around an original 1950’s Bedford KZ ambulance. Get your hands on original medical artefacts spanning over 300 years from our Museum of Medicine and Health collection and talk to our experts about healthcare of days gone by.

“

Our annual festival is a great way of demonstrating what we do to the local community. Whether it is getting behind the scenes of our research, learning more about study and work opportunities, taking part in experiments or just having a fun day out, there will be lots of exciting hands-on activities that will give a taste of what we're doing to improve the world.